


Bent, Not Broken

by Felceris



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: 7x06, Angst, F/M, Grief, No Lemons, Sad, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 19:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11904621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Felceris/pseuds/Felceris
Summary: "The dragons are my only children. They're the only children all ever have. Do you understand?"07x06 compliant.





	Bent, Not Broken

**Author's Note:**

> S07E06 Beyond the Wall -  
> I was writing my thoughts/defense of Daenerys’ reaction to Viserion’s death when I accidentally wrote this little ficlet. It’s basically just Dany in that moment, and back at the ship. In other words: don’t try to tell me she wasn’t grieving right or enough.
> 
> It’s Jonerys-lite. Their attraction & connection is present, but not the star.

Viserion had been hit. Hurt somehow by the Night King. She heard his scream, and her head whipped to his location in the sky. To her great disbelief, she saw the flames pour from his neck. She heard Drogon, and Rhaegal’s screams of grief.

  
She followed his descent to the ground, and watched in horror as he sank below the surface of the frozen lake. Her eyes never wavered from that spot. She stared in shock at the place that she last saw her gentlest child.

  
She was only able to wrench her eyes away when Jon yelled for them to go. His voice, normally so subdued but now filled with fear, pulled her from her shock long enough to transition into autopilot. Though she had just lost one of her beloved children, she was in the middle of a battle with the walking dead. She couldn’t afford to grieve.

  
She couldn’t even let herself believe Viserion was really gone. For how could he be gone? Drogon had recently endured an attack from a weapon designed to kill dragons, and he was fine. How could Viserion have been shot down so easily?

  
As Jon ordered them to go, to leave without him, she realized the Night King was poised to strike again. She couldn’t risk another of her children. She couldn’t risk their mission. But neither could she leave Jon. Yet, she couldn’t wait. There was no time.

  
She watched the King in the North as he was thrown beneath the water. She watched as he didn’t come back up. Like Viserion.

Still, she left.

  
After they had made it to safety, Daenerys allowed herself time. Time to wait for him. Time for him to come back to her, for someone had to. Finally, just before she gave up hope, she saw him and he broke through the line of trees. Alive.

  
Then she waited as he slept. She watched over him. She watched as his breath repeatedly lifted his scarred chest in a steady dance. Alive.

  
Unlike Viserion.

  
And then he was awake.

  
“I’m sorry.” His first words, and he thought only of her pain when he had nearly died himself. “I’m so sorry.”  
She shook her head in an attempt to make him understand. To dispel the pain in her chest. To chase away the tears. She couldn’t afford to be weak, even in front of this man who had somehow grown to mean so much to her.

  
She was not just a mother, but a queen. A khaleesi. And weakness for women almost always meant death. She could not meet his eyes, for she was afraid that he would see the fracture in her soul.  
She felt the warmth of his hand on hers, and she steeled herself against the desire to collapse into the comfort he offered.

  
“I wish I could take it back. I wish we’d never gone.”

  
She didn’t have to consider his words. Instead it was as if she had known he would say them. He had a good heart. He was a good man.

  
“I don’t. If we hadn’t gone, I wouldn’t have seen. You have to see it to know. And now I know.”

  
No matter how painful, the words were true. The coming war was bigger than them. Bigger than Viserion. Bigger than her broken heart.

  
“The dragons are my children,” she said before she could stop herself. She took a breath in a poor attempt to calm her frayed nerves. “The only children I’ll ever have.” She hated how her voice broke over the words almost as much as she hated the words themselves. “Do you understand?” She had to make him understand.

  
Jon nodded almost imperceptibly, and his eyes held hers firmly. He did not shy away from her painful truth.

  
“We are going to destroy the Night King and his army. We’ll do it together. You have my word,” she said in a voice thick with both grief, and determination.

  
He swallowed hard before he responded to her announcement.

  
“Thank you, Dany,” his voice was quiet but not unsure. He used the shortened version of her name as if he’d always called her that. Perhaps he had, in his mind.

  
“Dany? Who was the last person to call me that? I’m not sure, was it my brother? Not the company you want to keep,” she said in an effort to banish the tension.

  
“All right. Not Dany.” “How about ‘my Queen’?”

She stared at him, and for a moment she didn’t quite understand. He couldn’t be serious.

  
“I’d uh, bend the knee, but…”

  
“What about those who swore allegiance to you?” Was he really able to put his trust in her? After all that had happened that very day?

  
“They’ll come to see you for what you are.”

  
His words sent an icy shiver down her spine. She took his hand, almost tentatively, and the warmth was back.

  
“I hope I deserve it,” she said, and the tears that she’d managed to keep at bay all night finally fell.

  
“You do.”

  
His voice held no uncertainty, no waver, no weakness. She realized he had a profound faith in her, and it came when she most needed it. She had once relied so much on her unwavering confidence, but it had been struck down along with Viserion. She was humbled.

  
Suddenly, the tension in the room overwhelmed her. It was all too much, and too soon. She tried to pull her hand from his, to sever the connection but held on. For another breathless moment their hands were nearly melded together. One.

  
Their eyes locked together, and there was a world of unspoken understanding between them. Soon they would need to confront the undeniable magnetism between them. Soon, but not just then.

  
Daenerys was raw. She was, if not broken, then bent. She had to leave. To escape to her chambers so that she could finally let go. Jon released her hand, and she mumbled a command for him to rest. She stared down at him a moment as he feigned sleep before she retreated.  
Tomorrow there would be time for talk, but today there was time only for Viserion.


End file.
